


Just Between Brothers

by OllieCollie



Category: Killjoys (TV)
Genre: Brotherly Love, Brothers, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Gen, Light Angst, Marris Jaqobis is a crappy dad, Prequel, big brother D'av is the best
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:08:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25701853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OllieCollie/pseuds/OllieCollie
Summary: D’av was on the verge of drifting off when Johnny finally spoke. His voice was small and hesitant, lacking its usual sarcastic bravado. "Am I stupid?"In which Johnny is in need of some serious reassurance, and D’avin is happy to give it to him.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 12





	Just Between Brothers

**Author's Note:**

> Just an excuse for some brotherly fluff. This one-shot is based off a comment made by Marris Jaqobis in 4x08 (and may I just say, he was a real piece of work).
> 
> (Special thanks to strandedchesspiece for listening to me ramble and hyping me up to write more fics for this fandom. ;P)
> 
> Standard disclaimers apply.

It was approximately not-even-close to morning when D’avin Jaqobis was drawn out of his sleep by a quiet rustling somewhere in the bedroom. His tired mind supplied the assumption that it was the air filter kicking on, and he rolled over, tugging the bedsheets over his head in an attempt to block out the noise.

There was a small thump, a pause, and then a whisper. “D’av?”

D’avin moaned softly. “What’s wrong, Johnny?” he slurred automatically, still halfway in dreamland. No response came, and for a moment D’av wondered if the whisper of his name had been his imagination. He cracked one eye open. 

Johnny stood at his bedside, his figure just visible due to the starlight filtering in through the single bedroom window. He looked so much smaller than his ten years. 

Memories of the previous night came flooding back to D’avin, working excellently to tug him out of his semi-conscious state. He scrubbed a hand across his face before pushing himself up into a sitting position. "You good?" he asked, his voice slightly hoarse with sleep. He blinked a few times in an attempt to clear his blurry vision.

Johnny took a deep breath, head tilted and bottom lip trapped between his teeth as he debated his answer. For a moment, D'avin thought his brother might pull an "I'm fine" and slip back to his own bed. 

Instead, the kid dropped his gaze to the floor, giving a nearly imperceptible shake of his head. 

D'av regarded the younger boy carefully. "You wanna talk about it?" he pressed, ignoring the way his eyes burned with exhaustion. Between school and work and taking care of Mom, good sleep was often hard to come by for D'avin. He had another early morning approaching faster than he'd like. But he shoved the thoughts aside and waited patiently for Johnny to answer.

Seconds ticked by, then minutes. Sleep began to crawl at the corners of D'av's consciousness, and he was on the verge of drifting off when Johnny finally spoke. His voice was small and hesitant, lacking its usual sarcastic bravado. "Am I stupid?"

D'avin blinked.  _ That  _ was unexpected. Except maybe not—their dad had a habit of picking apart every little thing that they did wrong and throwing it back in their faces when he was drunk—which was often. He especially liked to pick on Johnny. With that context, the question itself wasn't exactly surprising—although D'av had to admit, he had been anticipating something more along the lines of "I dreamt space rats were chasing me." 

Johnny must have taken D'av's silence as a dismissal, because he began to shake his head, erasing the words with his hands as he backed up. "You know what, forget it, it's—"

"John." D'avin's voice was soft but firm, and it shut the younger boy up immediately. D'av scooted to the edge of his bed and swung his legs over the side, reaching over to flick on the small lamp that occupied the nightstand between their two beds. Thoughts of early mornings and sleep forgotten, he patted the empty space next to him. "Come here." 

Johnny let out a soft sigh, but he padded over and sank onto the creaky mattress beside the older boy. He remained silent, his head down and hands tucked in his lap.

"Why do you think you're stupid, Johnny?" D'av asked, genuinely wanting an answer from the kid. Of course, he knew what Dad had to say about the subject. But Dad wasn't in the room, and D'avin wanted to hear his brother's reasoning for the ridiculous claim.

Johnny shrugged half-heartedly. "'Cause…" he mumbled. "I'm no good at anything. I can barely even read."

D'avin sucked in a slow, steadying breath, but he could feel anger bubbling up inside him as he realized what else must have ensued before he'd arrived home last night.

The youngest Jaqobis had always seemed to struggle with school. He had a difficult time learning to read and quickly fell behind the others in his grade. Now, Johnny was an intelligent kid. He could build the most obscure yet creative things and came up with crazy ideas like nobody's business. He was great at memorizing and smart as a whip. However, because reading was a constant struggle for him, he still had trouble trying to keep up with his classmates in school, particularly when it involved anything that required textbooks and writing.

Johnny was also an imaginative kid, and that meant that sometimes he drifted off to his own little world when he should've been paying attention. D'avin didn't blame him; school was boring and there were so many other things he'd rather do than take tests. Their home life didn't help things any, as neither Mom nor Dad took time to help their boys with homework or assignments.

The combination of all those things brewed up some of Dad's favorite insults to hurl at his youngest after a night of drinking. D'avin always figured the verbal abuse was better than getting whipped five ways to Sunday, so he more often than not let the rants play out until Dad grew tired of yelling and stumbled off to bed. Usually Johnny was able to take it all in stride, letting Dad's comments roll off his back. But at the end of the day, he was still just a child, and like anybody else, he had a breaking point.

D'avin pulled himself out of his runaway train of thought and cleared his throat. "Are you saying that 'cause it's what Dad told you?" When he'd walked in the front door last night to one of Dad's endless tirades—aimed at Johnny—escalating into a "shove Johnny up against the wall and get in his face," he hadn't taken the time to figure out what had brought about the berating. His focus was on placating Dad and getting him to release the bruising grip he'd had on John's arm. After D'avin managed to talk Dad down enough to separate the two, he'd quickly ushered his brother to their bedroom and calmed the kid down enough to go to bed. There hadn't been much of a discussion as to what exactly had gone down or what it was that brought on their father’s wrath in the first place—although most of the time it was nothing more than Dad being Dad. 

Now that D'avin thought about it, however, Johnny  _ had _ been unusually quiet and unwilling to share what had set Dad off.

"I said it 'cause it's true." Johnny's voice held an undertone of defeat, something D'avin was not accustomed to hearing from his smart-mouthed little brother. 

"It's not," D'av firmly stated. He slid his gaze to the left to survey his brother.

"But Dad—"

"Screw Dad," D'av said with a huff. He shot a glance toward the door and lowered his voice. "He doesn't get to tell you what you are or aren't, John. He doesn't even know you." 

Johnny's face scrunched up in confusion, nose wrinkling slightly. "What—"

D’avin interrupted again. "If he took the time to  _ really _ know you, he wouldn't be calling you stupid. Just because you have trouble at school sometimes doesn't mean you’re dumb—education and intelligence are two different things." He'd overheard that last line from somewhere, and he had to admit it did sound pretty wise coming out of his mouth. "You don't have to be good enough for Dad—trust me, you'll never be 'good enough' for him." D'av didn't even try to hide the venom that surfaced in that last sentence. 

Quiet settled over the two brothers for a moment. Johnny nodded slowly, absorbing the words. “It’s just...Dad’s not the only one who says stuff like that. My teachers do, too.”

“Miss Camila likes you. I thought she was staying after school some days to help you with reading.”

“Well, she does,” John admitted. “But that’s just one. You know how much Mrs. Sallow doesn’t like me. She wrote a whole long note on my report card about how I could be doing so much better if I just tried harder.” The younger boy took a deep breath, but there was still a hint of tears in his voice when he spoke. “I  _ do  _ try, D’av. It’s just so hard sometimes—”

“Hey.” D’av placed a hand on the kid’s leg and squeezed gently. “I know. Don’t let them get to you. Only people who truly care about you get to tell you what's what."

Johnny shot him a sideways glance. "Oh," he said, a small grin tugging at the corners of his mouth in spite of the tears gathered in his big blue eyes. "So you're saying  _ you _ get to tell me I'm stupid."

D'av had to hold back a chuckle. "Yeah, dang right I do." He slung an arm around Johnny's shoulder and reached his other hand to ruffle the kid's short blond hair. "I also get to tell you that you're the best  _ and  _ the smartest brother ever."

The smile that lit up the kid's face was rewarding enough to make it worth the sleep D'avin had missed out on.  _ Take notes, Dad,  _ D’avin found himself scoffing internally. Affirmation did much more good than unchecked criticism and anger, and the proof was sitting right next to him. Kids were easily shaped and influenced by the people around them. D’avin determined to do a better job of reminding his brother that he was just as capable and worthy of love as anyone else. He knew from personal experience how it felt to be constantly belittled or told “you’re not good enough,” and there was no way he was going to let that continue to happen—to him or his little brother.

Johnny rubbed a hand across his eyes, brushing away the few tears that still lingered. He was leaning more heavily against D’av now, and the older boy could tell he was close to drifting off. D’av gently knocked his knee against his brother's, confident that their conversation would stick with the kid. "All right, buddy. I think it's time we both got some sleep." 

Johnny nodded, stifling a yawn as he slid out from underneath D'av's arm and shuffled back over to his bed. He tugged the blanket up to his chin and closed his eyes. 

D’avin turned off the lamp and settled down under his own sheets.

“Hey, D’av?” Johnny mumbled through the dark, his voice foggy with sleep.

“Yeah?”

“Thanks.” The sincerity in the single word wasn’t missed by D’avin.

“Anytime, buddy.” D’av waited until his brother's breaths evened out before he let sleep claim him once more.

**Author's Note:**

> If you have a minute, I'd love if you left a comment! Thank you so much for reading!


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